BUTTE — Health officials in Butte will continue their vaccination clinics each Wednesday even though they're not certain how many vaccines will be available.
“Right now the demand is very high and the supply isn’t quite high enough yet, it’s getting there, we’re still getting the vaccine every week, we’re just not sure how many vaccines until probably Monday,” said Butte Health Department Operations Director Diane Regan.
Two vaccination clinics have already been held at the Butte Civic Center in which about 1,500 vaccinations have been administered to senior citizens. The last clinic only had half the supply making it a challenge for health officials
“We’ve had laughter, we’ve had tears, we’ve had a lot of things over the last year, but we came together well,” said Regan.
They hope to have a ticketing system in place in the coming weeks, so people who make appointments ahead of time will know for sure they will get a vaccine.
“If you meet the criteria, you will be issued a ticket, you’ll show your ticket, it’ll be scanned, you’ll come in and get your vaccine,” she said.
Health officials hope to have a better system in place so they don’t have a repeat of what happened here last week when they ran out of vaccine and had to turn away many senior citizens.
“It was hard, I felt terrible, it was a cold day. When you’re 85 years old and you take your car out of the garage and it’s icy and you navigate the ice to get to the Civic Center and you’re told there are no shots, that’s not a good thing and it wasn’t a good thing for anyone involved,” Regan said.
The next clinic will be on Feb. 3; those 70 and older can make an appointment by calling 497-5008.